The Stickney Murder
Edwin Fenwick, labourer, confirmed the evidence of the wife.
Mary Ann Clark, widow, deposed:- I reside about 50 yards off: on Wednesday night, 30th Sept., about seven o�clock, I heard a noise in Biggadikes house as of several people talking, and went to see what was the matter. Proctor sat against the door. I said to him �what is the matter?� He said �Dicks took very bad since he got his tea.� The doctor was coming downstairs, and I went away. In the morning, at quarter-past six, Proctor called me in saying, �will you come, Dicks dying.� I went, picked up a tea cup and asked her what it was laid on the floor for? She replied that Biggadike had thrown it at her. She also said that while ill Biggadike had knocked her backwards. Proctor was not in the room when Biggadike died.
Jane Ironmonger, widow, Stickney: I live under the same roof as Biggadike. On Monday, the 28th Sept., Mrs Biggadike came into my house, said her husband was very ill, and began to tell me one of their dogs was poisoned last winter. She then asked me how those Garners got on about their poisoning. I told her I did not know. She replied she thought they were transported. She also said the police and doctors, she understood, could not find poison in the meal or sago. Biggadike told me he could not either read or write. I have heard Mrs Biggadike say she wished her husband would be brought home dead and stiff.
John Yarr Phillips, Governer of the House of Correction, Spilsby:- On the 15th October, Priscilla Biggadike, who was in my custody, applied to see me: she came into my office, and said she wished to make some statement, and tell me all about her husbands death. I cautioned her in the usual way, that whatever she said I should be obliged to take down in writing and produce against her at the inquest and in her trial. She spoke as follows:-
On the last day of September, on a Wednesday, I was standing against the tea-table and saw Thomas Proctor put a white powder of some sort into a tea-cup, and then poured some milk, which stood on the table, into it. My husband was at that time in the dairy washing himself. My husband came into the room directly after and sat himself down to the table, and I then poured his tea out and he drank it, and more besides that. And half-an-hour afterwards he was taken ill. He went out of doors and was sick, and came in and sat about a few minutes, and went out and was sick again, and then went to bed, and he asked me to send for the doctor, which I did. The doctor was an hour before he came. I went to the doctor�s about a quarter of an hour after he left and he gave me some medicine and ordered me how to give it to him - two tablespoons every half hour � and I was to put a mustard plaster on the stomach, and he came no more until eleven o�clock at night. I came downstairs to go out of doors and asked Thomas Proctor to go upstairs and sit with my husband. When I went upstairs into the room, as I was going up, I saw Proctor putting some white powder into the medicine bottle with a spoon, and he then went downstairs and left me in the room with my husband. As soon as he had left the room I poured some medicine into the cup and gave my husband, and I tasted it myself. In an hour afterwards I was sick and so I was for two day�s after. What I have just stated about the medicine took place about two o�clock in the morning, and after the doctor had gone. I wish you to send a copy of what I have said to the Coroner, and I wish to be present at the inquest to state the case before them, as it is the truth.
- Priscilla Biggadike X her mark.
Supt. Wright of Spilsby , deposed: On the 2nd Oct., I received one jar and three bottles, sealed and ? by Dr Maxwell. I took them home, locked them up in my office, and no other person had access to them. On Tuesday the 6th, I delievered them to Dr Taylor at Guy�s Hospital. On the 3rd, I apprehended the female prisoner, and charged her with wilfully murdering her own husband. I cautioned her very strongly not to incriminate herself. She replied �It�s hard work I should bear all the blame, I am innocent.� On our way to Spilsby, when near the railway station, I said �We have not been long ? from Spilsby, the last train is not in yet.� She replied �I was not thinking about the trains, I was thinking what I should say that I haven�t yet. I found a piece of paper in his pocket wrote upon, saying that he had done it himself, and the reason was stated, he was so much in debt.� I said �I understand from someone your husband could neither read nor write.� She replied �No, some one must have done it for him, he could not write himself.� I said �What have you done with the paper?� She replied �I have burn�t it, will you tell the gentlemen?� I said, �I will.� I apprehended Proctor, and charged him with the murder. He replied, �I am innocent. I know no more about it than I stated at the inquest.�
The Coroner then summed up. He said accidental or suicidal death was quite out of the question. The jury had heard the statement of Mrs Biggadike that the prisoner Proctor alone had administered the poison, but this had not been corroborated. Therefore they must give it what credence they thought it bore. The tea was provided by the wife, and it was therefore important to know whether this woman was in possession of poison. Now they had the evidence of these two witnesses distinctly showing that three or four months since she had poison. It might justly be inferred that she had. Then as to the motive. The jury had in evidence that the female prisoner and her husband often quarrelled, and that on one occasion she said she wished he might be brought home dead and stiff. Mrs Biggadike admitted she saw Proctor put a white powder in the tea. Now she knew the effect it had had, and yet she was present in the morning when a second dose was administered. The jury must also recollect the part Proctor took in the administration, and the intimate connection which existed between him and her.
The jury, after a brief consultation, returned a verdict of �wilful murder� against both the prisoners.
Examination Before The Magistrates.
Directly after the inquest had terminated, the prisoners Priscilla Biggadike and Thomas Proctor, underwent an examination before the Revs. D Rawnsley and T. H. Lister.
Captain Bicknall was present, and there was an immense crowd in the school-room. The prisoners, although looking somewhat downcast, did not seem to be severely affected, especially the female. The evidence was exceedingly voluminous, but in substance it was the same as appears above.
Both prisoners were then formally committed for trial at the next Lincoln Assizes on a charge of wilfully murdering Richard Biggadike.
Proctor: �Well gentleman, I shall be innocent, take me where you like.�
The female prisoner, without manifesting the least appearance of grief, applied to be admitted to bail. But was told the application could not be entertained.
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